The family of Oscar Pistorius’ slain girlfriend wants answers, her mother told a Johannesburg newspaper as the country waited to hear for the first time why prosecutors believe the iconic athlete murdered Reeva Steenkamp by shooting her multiple times on Valentine’s Day morning.

June Steenkamp, Reeva Steenkamp’s mother, told the Times in a front page interview: “Why? Why my little girl? Why did this happen? Why did he do this?”

“Just like that she is gone,” the paper quoted her as saying in what it described as an emotional telephone interview. “In the blink of an eye and a single breath, the most beautiful person who ever lived is no longer here.”

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Pistorius, who remains in custody in a red-brick, one-story police station in Pretoria, is set to return to court Tuesday for the start of his bail hearing. That hearing will be the first opportunity for the…